In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil. Once hot, add the baby portabella mushrooms and shredded carrots. Cook, stirring frequently for 2 minutes. Add the red peppers and cook, stirring frequently for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until golden brown. Add the spinach leaves and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

Allow vegetables to cool for five minutes.

In a food processor, process the cooked vegetables and spices for 20 to 30 seconds.

Empty the contents of the food processor into a large bowl. Add the quinoa, tamari, scallions and breadcrumbs; mix together with your hands until you achieve a dough-like solid mass.

Refrigerate the “burger dough” for two hours.

After the two hours have passed, take out burger dough from refrigerator. Form “burger dough” into four individual patties and cook to your liking (either pan-fry for a few minutes on each side or bake on a lighty oiled baking sheet at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 7 minutes on each side).

In the cold winter months, the warm lentils and quinoa, along with the spices, make for a comforting dish.

Once summer hits, I love this as a cold salad!

This is also one of those meals that keeps you full for a very long time, as it combines heart-healthy fats, soluble fiber, and protein.

Don’t be let the long steps fool you; this is a very simple recipe. The lentils and dressing can both be prepared while the quinoa cooks.

By the way, if you don’t have a food processor (or don’t feel like taking it out, using it, and cleaning it), you can always replace the dressing with some fresh avocado slices. Even if you don’t have avocados handy, the lentil and quinoa combination in itself is delicious!

Considering the nutritional horrors that are often consumed due to time constraints, I am always eager to share products I personally come across — and try out for myself — that make it possible to whip up tasty and healthy food in minutes.

It gets better. All varieties are already seasoned with organic spices and a variety of organic vegetables (not vegetable powders — REAL vegetables!).

While many boxed and seasoned grain products contain ridiculous amounts of sodium (as much as 600 or 700 milligrams per serving), Seeds of Change gets brownie points for offering, at most, 380 milligrams per serving (the average sodium content of these four products is an outstanding 268 milligrams per serving).

Each of these pouches also offers, on average, 5 grams of fiber and 7 grams of protein.

Although quinoa flour is a whole grain (offering approximately 4 grams of fiber per quarter cup), these cookies contain a mix of quinoa, tapioca, and rice flour.

Thus, they are technically “cookies made with quinoa flour” rather than “quinoa cookies,” but that’s marketing for you!

Notice, too, that there are two ingredients contributing sugar (sugar cane juice and brown sugar.)

Now, let’s look at the nutrition facts.

Two cookies contain less than a gram of fiber, and a mere gram of protein.

Again, this is inferior to eating half a cup (one serving) of pure quinoa, which adds up to 3 grams of fiber and 7 grams of protein.

Seeking healthy ingredients in otherwise nutritionally empty foods is exactly what many food companies want you to do.

I, however, would like you to enjoy a cookie because of its flavor, rather than a healthy ingredient that, as a result of either being heavily processed or mixed with refined grains and sugars, ends up contributing very little to the product’s nutritional profile.

If you find quinoa bland, try topping it with sautéed vegetables or adding chopped walnuts and raisins to it.

If you find it bland after implementing those ideas, then just enjoy other whole grains.

Additionally, the overwhelming majority of new whole grain products come in the shape of sugary cookies or cereals “made with whole grains,” which can mean that as little as 5% of the total wheat flour used is whole.

Not the best approach.

If your whole grain consumption isn’t up to par, here are some ideas.

– Whether at home or at a restaurant, opt for brown rice. Kitchen-phobes have no excuse. Many companies now offer brown rice that cooks in 10 minutes in the microwave. Nutritionally, it is equal to regular, longer-cooking varieties.

– Enjoy whole wheat pasta, like DeCecco whole wheat fusilli (pictured at right). If you are brand new to it, make your dishes with half regular pasta and half whole wheat.

Although Vitamin B12 is often cited as an issue in vegan diets, fortification has made this former problem a lot easier to manage.

Many popular cereals are fortified with vitamin B12.

Let’s go back to the Cheerios example — 1 cup provides a third of a day’s needs.

A cup of some (fortified) soymilks, meanwhile, contains 40 percent of a day’s worth of B12!

Wakame – a kelp – is also a great source. It’s one of the few seaweeds that contains human-active B12 (as opposed to the analog type, which is useless in our bodies).

In the event that B12 needs can not be met through food, I do recommend supplementation. Make sure it is specifically a B12 supplement and not a multivitamin containing B12 (vitamin C, vitamin E, and iron can impede absorption).

For those of you unfamiliar with seitan (pictured to the left, on the right hand side of that stir-fry dish), it is a popular meat substitute made of wheat gluten. Its consistency is chewy without being gummy and very much akin to a chicken breast.

From a nutritional standpoint, it is a great lean protein — very low in fat (2 to 3 grams for a 3 ounce serving), high in protein (18 to 20 grams per serving), and high in iron (25 – 30 % of the daily recommended intake per serving).

Seitan also offers 3 to 4 grams of fiber and approximately 8% of the calcium recommended daily amount in a three ounce serving.

Supermarkets like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s sell it, as do many conventional supermarkets in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Seattle, and Chicago. It is often located near produce, alongside tofu.

The following recipe is not only healthy, I can also say I have served it — with much success! — to people who would scoff at eating meat substitutes.

My only condition was that they had to taste the dish without knowing the ingredients, and tell me their honest opinion.

I’m happy to say that a few minutes later I had a handful of carnivores asking me where they could get “this stuff”!

This meal is extremely heart-healthy — three quarters of its fats are of the monounsaturated kind, the absolute best for cardiovascular health!

That being said, if you are interested in a lower-fat variety containing less calories, only include half an avocado, rather than a whole one. This results in 80 less calories and takes away seven grams of fat (as well as three grams of fiber, so be sure to throw in an extra vegetable like broccoli or shredded carrots to make up for that!)

The past five years have produced an increase in wheat-free products such as breads, pastas, crackers, and cookies.

Although the claim “wheat-free” also accompanies other health-related ones such as “Low in saturated fat!” or “No added sugar!”, you should only be concerned with avoiding wheat if you have been diagnosed with an allergy to it or a genetic disease known as celiac disease.

Celiacs can not tolerate gluten, a protein mainly found in wheat as well as barley and rye.

When gluten is consumed — even if it’s as little as 1/8 of a teaspoon — the small intestine is damaged, and symptoms vary from extremely uncomfortable bloating and diarrhea to fatigue, mouth sores, and muscle cramps.

Although approximately ten percent of celiacs don’t appear to show any symptoms, they are not immune from the nutrient malabsorption that occurs as a result of damage in the small intestine.

Avoiding wheat, rye, and barley is not as easy as it sounds.

Many medicines have traces of gluten, and cross-contamination can often happen in factories (which is why you will often see food labels for products that don’t contain either of those three ingredients warning consumers that the respective food was made in a factory that processes wheat).

Once diagnosed (after a simple blood test), the lifestyle change can be hard, especially when dining out.

A fish and vegetable stew might sound harmless, but that tomato sauce on top might have a little flour in it to thicken it. Frozen yogurts often use gluten as a stabilizing agent!

Remember, even the slightest trace of gluten is enough to set off some very uncomfortable symptoms.

Luckily, celiacs have more options than ever. Although all sorts of wheat flour (all-purpose, whole wheat, durum, farina, etc.) should be avoided, experimenting with other types (ie: chickpea, tapioca, rice) is recommended.

Celiacs often end up introducing their palate to a variety of flavors — quinoa, amaranth, and flax often become a regular addition to their diet, rather than the “funky grain” they have once a month.

Unfortunately, the only “cure” to celiac disease is complete avoidance of foods that damage the small intestine.

I am a huge fan of whole grains, but quinoa (KEEN-wah) is my absolute favorite.

This staple of Incan culture (their army swore by it and considered it as valuable as gold) is a nutritional powerhouse which is finally sharing shelf space with rice, cous cous, and pasta at general supermarkets after years of taking a backseat in specialty health food stores.

Quinoa is not really a grain; it actually belongs to the same family of dark leafy green vegetables as spinach, but due to its texture and cooking method, it is referred to as a grain (thus, it is technically a pseudograin).

And what a pseudograin it is! Quinoa, like soy, is a complete plant protein (meaning it contains all eight essential amino acids; many plant proteins lack the amino acid lysine).

Containing very high levels of blood-vessel-relaxing magnesium — half a cup provides 50% of the daily requirement for a 2,000-calorie diet — quinoa helps treat hypertension and, some recent research suggests, migraine headaches.

One cup of cooked quinoa packs 380 milligrams of potassium — another key mineral in preventing hypertension and offsetting the problems of too much sodium. To give you an idea, that’s as much potassium as a small banana!

It gets even better! Quinoa is a prebiotic, meaning it promotes the growth of healthy bacteria in our intestinal tracts. The healthier our bacteria, the better chance we have of warding off infections and fighting back and disease-causing bacteria.

And, as if all that wasn’t enough, quinoa is gluten-free, so celiacs can enjoy it — and all its benefits — with no side effects.

Interested in trying some? Hunt down quinoa in your local supermarket or health food store (in the same aisle as rice) and go to town.

Cooking it is easy. Simply mix in a pot with water, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until the water is evaporated.